Amy Sherman Palladino; an Exploration of Character Regression

Plot Holes and Flat Resolutions Against Rich Backdrops

Amy Sherman Palladino is a renowned television writer, with shows like The Marvelous Mrs.Maisel and Gilmore Girls (which is now being cemented as a classic). I am utterly fascinated by the worlds she creates. Her shows often center around beautiful, funny women with great fashion senses, walking around gorgeous sets and talking erratically and often in references. With The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel coming to an end around a few weeks ago, I came to think how unsatisfied I have been with those two shows' treatment of their characters towards the end of their runs, how often times it felt as a disservice to who they were established as throughout the series. 

My main gripe with Palladino’s characters, is their knack for self-destruction immediately when the show and narrative begin to get closer to a resolution for that character, and while, this device can work greatly to prove that the only thing standing in that characters’ way is themselves, Amy Sherman Palladino tends to do that towards the end of the series, creating unresolved plot-points and never fully wrapping up that character’s storyline; somehow everything is just dandy. 

We notably see this with Rory Gilmore, who after graduating high school enters a wicked out of character self-sabotaging streak that never ends, just somehow getting worse, creating chaos that even when faced head-on by her mother doesn’t really fix or actualize her mistakes or behavior, they simply sort of makeup and the show returns back to its natural flow, while Rory ruins her life over and over again. By the time we get to the finale, a change hasn’t dramatically occurred in her life to show that she has resolved anything, even in the sequel Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life (which we dare not talk about) makes her even more unlikable and annoying. 

I don’t mind unlikable or annoying characters, Emily Gilmore is my favorite in the show and she does some pretty nasty stuff, but Rory’s unlikeablness is intolerable, a character we are supposed to be rooting for, constantly making decisions that do not make sense for her whatsoever. Establishing her for four seasons just for it all to go down the drain is pretty tough to watch, it makes it nearly impossible to root for her when you hardly recognize her anymore. She just becomes plain insufferable. 

And then we have Midge from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Midge was established from the beginning as a very vain, self-obsessed, and selfish person, and we have seen these traits from day one: her being an absent parent, covering her elaborate beauty regimens from her husband, making jokes at the expense of others even when they tell her not to, almost ruining someone’s career and the list quite frankly goes on. Now, in the last season of Maisel, we are watching her have somewhat of a similar fate to Rory’s: self-imploding and opening plot holes without ever solving them, nothing is being wrapped up instead it’s just meandering and opening more cans of worms each episode. I am majorly critical of the time jumps in the latest season, showing how fraught the character’s relationships are and having them go through insane arcs that we didn’t get to witness, and with every episode coming out it’s hard to figure out how these stories will be completely fleshed out, even after reaching past the midseason point, it seems like no one is getting any form of an ending or closure (open-ended or not), it’s all sort of fraught. Midge is getting closer to her break and she obviously is worthy of it, but I feel like a lot of time this season has gone to developing her character by showing us things we have seen countless times, I am deeply uninterested in her relationship with Joel, and their habits of floating around each other so meaninglessly. It serves nothing to either of their characters. But I do think, the finale does a great job of returning the show back to its roots, how we know it and have fallen in love with it and the characters. Midge does get her break, in a very Midge way of being impulsive, of putting everything on the line. I do enjoy the writing choice of ultimately giving Midge a very lonely life, it’s somehow what she’s always wanted but, as an outsider deeply sad to watch. You don’t really know how much she minds it.

And as much as I enjoy a lot of what Amy Sherman Palladino writes, I love her ability to create such rich and abundant sets and backdrops for her characters, I deeply enjoy their sense of humor, style, and eccentricities. It’s just hard getting towards this somewhat signature of hers of having her characters spiral out of control into something almost unrecognizable and never having them face it head-on, assess their behavior or wrap up their storyline properly. Both Midge and Rory vow to people who tell them they are acting unlike themselves, Midge promises Lenny, and Rory promises Jess, that they will get their lives back on track, but even with that, they don’t necessarily seem to correct that behavior, it seems an almost empty promise. Nonetheless, do not mistake this as me saying either of those shows are bad, they are great television, with frustrating holes. With all of that said, I’ll probably be tuned in for whatever Palladino has cooking up for audiences in the future.